Feds: Ohio Clergy Student Arrested For Seeking Sex With Baby
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal authorities say an Ohio seminary student has been arrested in California on suspicion of intending to travel to Mexico to have sex with a toddler or baby.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that 23-year-old Joel Wright was taken into custody after getting off a plane in San Diego.
Authorities say he had written emails to an undercover agent posing as a travel guide that he wanted to adopt or purchase a female child under age 3 in Tijuana, Mexico, for the purposes of having sex with her.
He's scheduled to be arraigned Monday, and an after-hours call to determine whether he has an attorney wasn't immediately returned.
Wright attends Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus. A school spokesman, the Rev. John Allen, tells the Columbus Dispatch they are "shocked and saddened" at the "reprehensible" allegations. Wright has been expelled.
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